The GOD to whom Vengeance belongeth Not that He has made the Work peculiar to Himself for any extraordinary Pleasure He takes in it but because He only is able to execute it aright in fitting Instances that is and just Proportions For He only knows the Malice of Mens Hearts and the Peevishness of their Spirits and the secret Malignity of their Intentions as well as the true Obliquity and Baseness of their Actions Which we being utterly Ignorant of upon that account also must forbear Revenge else we undertake what we are unable justly to perform another piece of unwarrantable Rashness and Presumption Leaving Vengeance to GOD therefore who alone can take it in equitable Measures and with unerring Exactness let us give up our selves to the opposite Duties as the Gospel requires and be very Diligent and Exemplary in them As we are instructed in the last Verse of this Chapter Let us be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as GOD for CHRIST's sake hath forgiven us And as we are taught elsewhere If our Enemies hunger let us feed them if they thirst let us give them drink Let us do good against evil and overcome evil with good and never requite the worst Unkindnesses but with Prayers and Civilities So we shall conform to the Primitive Christians and signalize our selves by a noble Imitation of their Glorious Patterns of whom we find it thus recorded Being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat 1 Cor. 4.12 13. But if the Spirit of Revenge be so strong in any that they cannot bridle or restrain it I will shew them how they may best vent it Let them seriously think how many Wrongs and withall how grievous ones they have done to GOD their Neighbours and their own Souls and let their vindictive Humour run out against their Sins and be spent upon themselves So they shall break no Unity Which if we would not do we must Forbear one another at least in the several Instances mentioned For Despising Mens Failings Censuring their Actions Aggravating their Faults Reproaching their Persons and Revenging their Ill turns are almost direct and natural Provocations to Wrath and Strife and Hatred and Malice And where-ever these Evils rise and rule there is there can be no room for Unity There are and must be Heart-burnings and Animosities and they have always Jars and Discord in their Train Unless therefore we exercise mutual Forbearance in the aforesaid Cases and that with all good Care and Conscience we plainly shew we are no Friends to Unity Perhaps I might say we are perfect cruel Enemies to it and instead of healing the fearful Gashes made in it do stab it to the Heart and add to its bleeding gaping Wounds As to forbearing Ecclesiastical Impositions I have said nothing that 's the Concern of those in Authority and it is not the part of a Popular Discourse to prescribe to Governors Though I cannot but think it would be matter of Joy to good Christians to see the Terms of Communion with any pure Church made as few as they may be and those few made as easie as they can be by being stretch'd out to the utmost Extent of a wise and safe and most enlarged Charity And happy it is where in framing and receiving of Church-Constitutions favourable Indulgence and Condescention in the Rulers meet with Flexibility and obediential Compliance in the People For where the Tempers of both are so laudable in themselves and Congruous to each other they will be sure Foundations of a solid Unity Of such a Unity as by being Pleasing and Satisfactory in its Conditions will be either indissoluble or of lasting Duration And here I beg leave to make one Remark upon what occurs in the Fifteenth of the Acts In that Chapter we find the Apostles and Elders together holding a Council And after serious and mature Debates relating to certain Gentile Converts they came to this prudent and moderate Determination It seemed good to the HOLY GHOST and to us to lay no greater Burthen upon you than these NECESSARY Things Now that Council being the most Apostolical that ever met this must be the most Authentick that was ever made and so the purest President if not perfectest Standard for Sacred Impositions that the Catholick Church can shew or go by upon Earth And this Council and this Canon laying no other things upon Christians but what were Necessary Hence it will follow that if Particular Churches would draw the first and best Example into Practice they must take the same Measures and impose only such things as are absolutely Necessary in their own Nature or else upon great and high Accounts And when we find in the Case alledged that an indifferent thing Abstinence from things Strangled was required as Necessary to further the Association of Judaizing Christians with Believing Gentiles From hence it may be argued with Parity of Reason that 't is necessary Indifferent things should not be imposed where that Imposition may hinder the Coalescence of dissenting Christians with the imposing Church Yet this on the other side must be added That no indifferent things imposed nor any thing less than downright Sin in the Terms of Communion with any Church can justifie our Separation from that Church And the Reason is evident because Separation where it is not absolutely needful to avoid Sin becomes a Sin in it self by being an unlawful Breach of that Unity of the SPIRIT which GOD hath so positively and peremptorily injoyned And where Separation is thus sinful as it always is where we are not forc'd upon it to shun Sin we must chuse to submit to any Inconveniencies rather than be guilty of it For it is much better that we should be uneasie than that GOD should be offended Much better for us to be incommoded in our Circumstances than to be defiled in our Consciences Nor may we leave a Church for more Purity's sake in whose Communion we may continue without Sin For besides that upon this Account we may for ever separate and sub-divide and run out Criminous Schisms into an endless Process or Multiplication We must be grievously Preposterous in our Procedure What sensible Man would attempt to wash his Hands white with Ink Or go about to take a Spot from off his Face by plunging himself over Head and Ears into Mire And are not they as little rational in their Enterprize and not only more Absurd but Faulty too that seek to advance Purity by sinning and that commit a Crime to cure an Imperfection And this is truly the case of those who withdraw from one Church in whose Communion they are innocent and safe to set up another purer than that Instead of bettering themselves they become really worse and well they may and needs they must because they do evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 To check Inclinations of separating upon such an account it may properly be considered that no Church upon Earth
one single Duty which GOD has charged upon us more strictly For in the Holy Writings what is more forcibly recommended more peremptorily required more frequently and also more earnestly inculcated than Peace Seek Peace and pursue it Have Peace one with another Be at Peace amongst your selves Follow Peace with all Men. If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all Men. So that it is not enough for us to accept Peace when it is offered to embrace it when we meet it to hold it when we have it But when we have it not we must seek it when it flees from us we must follow it and never stop till we overtake it Though the Terms be hard yet if they be reasonable if they be lawful and so possible Our LORD commands us not to refuse them His Gospel binds us to submit to them and that with all Men. Be they who they will what they will if they be but Men we must if possible live peaceably with them And no wonder such solemn Injunctions from Heaven should be laid upon Christians to maintain Peace when it is a thing not only transcendently Excellent in it self but attended with many inestimable Benefits I beg leave to mention but a few of them It defends from many Sins He that is not at Peace with his Brother is ready to be Angry with him without a Cause To revile him and call him Racha or Fool To be reveng'd on him for his Oversights or petty Injuries To quarrel him and fight him as the unhappy Custom is it may be to kill him at least to Hate him whereby in St. John's account he is a Murtherer though he kill him not Peace is a good Defensative from these Evils and from many other which now I cannot reckon up It is a mighty Friend to Justice Then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea says the Prophet Isaiah 48.18 Where Peace flows as a River there Righteousness swells like an Ocean But if the River of Peace be dried or damn'd up the Sea of Justice will be at a low Ebb. It fits us for the Enjoyment of GOD's propitious Presence Live in Peace and the GOD of Love and Peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 But He that suffered not David to build Him a Temple because he was a Man of Blood will never make them Temples for Himself to reside in that are not Children of Peace For GOD's sake therefore live in Peace that so ye may be Happy in the Fruition of his Presence I might go on and add it is an Help to Duty a Safeguard to Truth a Furtherance of Love the Fewel of Joy a Support of Order an Encouragement of Learning Arts and Sciences the thing which Seasons and Sweetens all Accommodations and crowns the highest Prosperity with Happiness But I give only one Hint more of its Worth It is a main piece of our future Recompence and a Branch of the Eternal Worlds Felicity To every Man that worketh good there shall be Glory Honour and Peace Rom. 2.10 Not only a peaceful Mind and Conscience but a peaceful State and Condition above As there shall be no Difference there betwixt GOD and Man by reason of a perfect Reconcilement and no Feuds betwixt a Man and Himself by reason of absolute Contentment So there shall be no Discord betwixt one Man and another by reason of a thorough Composure of all things and an entire Pacification on all sides fixing the whole Body of Blessed ones in a sweet Agreement As our Sins shall there be turned into Innocence our Corruptions into Holiness our Sorrows into Joys and our Troubles into Triumphs So all our various Enmities and Dissentions shall exspire into endless Peace and Quietness O then let us in some measure live now as we shall do hereafter Live here upon Earth for one short Moment as we must do in the Heavenly Regions for ever if at last we be worthy to inhabit them I now conclude with one Direction which if well observed will conduce effectually to the settling of an Happy Peace amongst us Let us be sincerely Religious The Wisdom that is from above is first Pure and then Peaceable James 3.17 And where this Wisdom which is true Religion prevails in us and gets the Ascendent over all evil Principles it will certainly Impregnate us with its own noble Properties making us not only Pure in our Nature but pacifick in our Temper And nothing indeed can be more powerful either to procure or establish Peace than true Religion For the truly Religious mortifie their Lusts from whence come Wars and Strifes amongst us both Naturally and Judicially at once they subdue their Passions bridle their Tongues bear Affronts suffer Injuries shun Debates obey Magistrates submit to Ministers hate Divisions love Concord offend none oblige all So that would every one of us be sincere Christians no farther Care need be taken for Peace It would as certainly be the Result or Product of our Religion as it is the Law and end of the same And as true Religion would make for Peace verifying its Character of first Pure and then Peaceable so GOD would see that Peace should be the Effect or Consequent of it When a Mans ways please the LORD He maketh even his Enemies to be at Peace with him Prov. 16.7 So that were our ways sincerely Religious and pleasing to the LORD Peace and we should quickly meet and after that should never part our very Enemies would be unable to ravish it from us Then it would not matter in the least how Numerous Malicious Potent Politick Furious Implacable our Adversaries are or at any time prove for they should all be at Peace with us If they would not chuse to be so GOD would make them to be so and would some way or other bind them to the Peace and bind us up in it And when once we are bound up in the Bond of Peace how fast shall we stand in the Unity of the SPIRIT and how securely shall we keep it Provided that is that we always endeavour it And as it behoves us all to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and strenuously endeavouring to keep it by all good Means So particularly by the Use of those good Rules now delivered Which as I dare not so You must not call my Rules For though I have opened and urged them yet as has been noted they are the Rules of St. Paul and so the Divine Rules of GOD Himself Of that GOD Who maketh Men to be of one Mind in an House Of that GOD who best knows by what Rules and Means to make the whole Christian Church be as once it was of one Heart and one Soul Acts 4.32 Which that it may be let us humbly implore it at the hands of GOD Let us make it a daily Petition in our private Devotions And as often as we can let us joyn with the Church in her Publick Prayers and supplicate for Unity with becoming Earnestness Where she prays in the Litany That it may please GOD to give to all Nations Vnity Peace and Concord And in the Collect for all Conditions of Men That all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of Truth and hold the Faith in Vnity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life And in the Prayer for the Church-Militant That GOD would inspire continually the Vniversal Church with the Spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord and grant that all they that do confess his Holy Name may agree in the Truth of his Holy Word and live in Vnity and Godly Love Where our Church I say prays thus for Vnity let us humbly and heartily joyn in the Petitions pouring them out with an elevated Zeal and the highest Streins of a most intense and vehement Fervency And at present let us beg the invaluable Blessing in part of that Collect which is the last save one in the Office for the late solemn Monthly Fast Which I could wish all Holy Supplicants that are Lovers of Unity would constantly use in their devout Retirements and Addresses to Heaven till such time as they either compose or meet with a more pregnant Form O GOD the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST our only SAVIOUR the Prince of Peace look down in much Pity and Compassion upon this Church and Nation Give us Grace seriously to lay to Heart the great Dangers we are in by our unhappy Divisions Take away all Hatred and Prejudice and whatsoever else may hinder us from Godly Union and Concord That as there is but one Body and one SPIRIT and one hope of our Calling one LORD one Faith one Baptism one GOD and Father of us all So we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul united in one Holy Bond of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity and may with one Mind and one Mouth Glorifie Thee O GOD through JESUS CHRIST our LORD Amen FINIS
Divine Rules for Christian Vnity Opened and Vrged A SERMON Preach'd in the Cathedral Church OF NORWICH October 16. 1692. By ERASMUS WARREN Rector of Worlington in Suffolk Be of one Mind 2 Cor. 13.11 If there be therefore any Consolation in CHRIST if any Comfort of Love if any Fellowship of the SPIRIT if any Bowels and Mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Phil. 2.1 2. LONDON Printed for Samuel Oliver Bookseller in Norwich and are to be sold by J. Robinson in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. To the Worshipful MICHAEL BEVERLY Esq MAYOR OF THE City of NORWICH SIR IT was St. Cyprian's Complaint long since and a very sad one because a very true one * Videns ille idola derelicta per nimium credentium populum sedes suas ac templa deserta excogitaverit novam fraudem ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat incautos Haereses invenit Schismata quibus subverteret fidem veritatem corrumperet scinderet Vnitatem De Vnit Eccle. That the Devil seeing his Idols left and his Seats and Temples forsaken by a Multitude of Believing People thought of a new Cheat how under the very Title of the Christian Name he might deceive the Unwary He invented Heresies and Schisms whereby he might subvert the Faith corrupt the Truth and cut UNITY asunder And how very successful this Invention of his has been and how many and grievous Mischiefs it has wrought and may still produce Experience shews us and gives us but too good Grounds to suspect I pray GOD make us throughly sensible of it and so deeply affect every one of us with it as that the Dangers which threaten us and grow upon us from our unhappy Divisions may be timely prevented and for ever superseded by a speedy and perfect Closure of all sides And O what a Blessed Change would it be considering how we are crumbled into Sects and Factions to have our many Differences moulded up into one common Interest and all separate Parties melted down into Christian Unity Might this Discourse in the least Measure contribute to that Glorious Work I should never repent of its Publication though I was drawn to it with Reluctancy I confess Sir when I outstood your first Motions to it and those that were made by other excellent Persons while I was in your City I hoped and concluded that I had finally freed my self from farther Solicitations of that nature But when I found that they followed me into the Country and when I met with this Passage amongst others in your Letter It is not only my Opinion that your Sermon will be Serviceable to the Publick towards Healing the Breaches that are amongst us but others of better Judgment than my self do unanimously agree to the same and all People that I converse with desire that I would use my Interest to perswade you to Print it I then thought I had reason to submit and accordingly have done it And truly fear of Censure as well as force of Intreaty prevailed with me to gratifie you in the Instance For in case I had refused they who desired the Sermon might come abroad would have condemn'd me it may be for not duly practising my own Doctrin which press'd Men by all the means they could use to endeavour Unity Than which you both wisely and seriously note in your Letter aforesaid as nothing can be more seasonably discoursed on so there is not any thing more desirable by good Christians or more to be sought after in this divided Nation I heartily wish that All were of your Mind then it might be hoped that their Endeavours after Spiritual Unity would be such as GOD would Bless with Happy Success At least Sir it would make People very careful to omit nothing conducive thereunto if I may judge by your Procedure For not so much as One single Sermon tending to Union could be heard by you but as mean as it is you would have it made publick In case it proves Instrumental that way I shall greatly rejoyce in my compliance with you And if it does not I shall still have the Satisfaction of answering the Desires of many Good Men and more particularly of testifying my self to be Honoured Sir Your most Humble Servant E. Warren Ephesians 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT in the Bond of Peace A Most Kind and Important Petition was that which our adorable LORD in the Days of his Flesh put up for his Proselytes St. John 17.21 That they all may be one as Thou Father art in me and I in Thee that they also may be one in us O that the GOD who heareth Prayers would please to answer it in the Fullness of it But that so great a Blessing may come down exuberantly on the Body of Christians and continue with them something must be done on their part That is the Unity their LORD prayed for they must labour after It is stiled the Vnity of the SPIRIT because as it joyns us together in one Mind or Spirit so it is wrought by the Efficiency or Operation of the HOLY GHOST It may be thus described It is a Blessed Agreement of Spiritual Persons in Spiritual Matters to Spiritual Ends. An AGREEMENT For even in Natural as well as amongst Rational Beings there can be no Union where there is no Concord An Agreement of SPIRITUAL PERSONS That is of CHRISTIANS Who though in their Natural Capacity they are like other Men yet in their Religious Profession they are distinguish'd from them it being Spiritual in all regards For the Author of it is Spiritual CHRIST The Rule of it is Spiritual the Gospel The Instruments of it are Spiritual Ordinances The Exercise of it is in Spiritual Duties The Ends of it are Spiritual Excellencies The Motives to it are Spiritual Inducements The Rewards of it are Spiritual Attainments The very Confederacy in it is by Spiritual Ligaments Whether we consider Christians as tied together in a Community amongst themselves or as a Mystical Body joyned to their Sovereign Head So that Infidels agreeing never so well must be wide of this Unity of the SPIRIT At best they can make but a Political or Superstitious Society An Agreement in Spiritual MATTERS As in Doctrin Sacraments Liturgy Government So that let Christians themselves agree never so fully as to Secular Affairs they would be much below the Unity of the SPIRIT Their Agreement would rise no higher than a Civil or Amicable Combination To Spiritual ENDS As to the Honour of GOD the Interest of His Kingdom the Good and Happiness of the Souls of Men So that should Christians agree never so throughly in Spiritual Matters to Temporal Ends they would be short of the Unity of the SPIRIT still For their Ends must either be Innocent or Sinful If Innocent they would be but a Selfish Association If Sinful an Impious and Vnlawful one And therefore lastly it
is a BLESSED Agreement and that in several Respects In respect of its Origin as springing from Blessed Principles In respect of its Influence as producing Blessed Effects In respect of its Tendency and Subservience as promoting our present and ministring to our future endless Beatitude And thus it is distinguish'd from all other Agreements upon Earth Now to preserve and promote this Spiritual Unity I shall humbly offer some plain Rules or Directions Six of them shall be taken out of the Context and for that reason they must be of the more Weight and I hope will be of the more Efficacy They are these 1st Be sensible of the great need of Unity 2ly Learn to be deeply Humble 3ly Labour for a meek Temper of Mind 4ly Arm your selves with Long-suffering 5ly Exercise mutual Forbearance 6ly Live in Christian Love They are all couched in the two first Verses of the Chapter I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called with all Lowliness and Meekness with Long-suffering Forbearing one another in Love First Be sensible of the great need of Vnity It is absolutely necessary upon the Account of our Calling Of our high holy Heavenly Calling as it is denominated in the Sacred Volume And therefore that we might go the right way to work and be inclin'd to endeavour it from a just Sense of the Necessity of it the Apostle directs us in the first place to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called Intimating we can never do that never be worthy Disciples of CHRIST without Unity For impossible it is that any should walk worthy of their Calling whatever it be unless they answer the Nature of it and advance it But there is no doing either of these as to our Christian Vocation without Unity Without Unity we cannot answer the Nature of our Calling And the Reason is evident because a main part of that Vocation is Unity As GOD has called us to Peace and called us to Holiness and called us to His Kingdom as the Divine Oracles testifie So he has called us to Unity as much as to any thing as appears there Nor must we forget that the Holy JESUS honoured Christians with many excellent and noble Gifts and sometimes with glorious or miraculous ones on purpose to bring them into Unity and keep them in it The Glory which Thou gavest me I have given them And why That they may be one even as we are one St. John 17.22 Yea the great things of our Religion not to say the whole of it seem to be design'd to this End to indear us mightily and closely to unite us The very Genius of it leads that way directly and invites and draws most powerfully to it For says St. Paul just after the Text There is one Body and one SPIRIT even as ye are called in one Hope of your Calling one LORD one Faith one Baptism one GOD and Father of all Such a Divine Sorites or heap of Arguments perswading to Unity as can no where be parallell'd Were Christians incorporate in different Bodies or were the one Body in which they are incorporate animated by different Spirits or did the one SPIRIT which animates them allot them different Callings or did the one Calling allotted them allow them different Hopes or did the one Hope allowed them tye them to different LORDS or did the one LORD they are obliged to give them different Faiths or to the one Faith given them were they admitted by different Baptisms or in their one initiating Baptism were they devoted to different GODS or were the one GOD to whom they are devoted not their Father they might then be divided and could not well help it Yea Division which is now their Sin might then be their Duty But the Case is nothing so On the contrary there is but one Body that is the Church into which true Christians are grafted But one SPIRIT the HOLY GHOST by which they are illivened But one Calling the Evangelical Religion in which they are engaged But one Hope that of Salvation by which they are encouraged But one LORD that is CHRIST by whom they are redeemed But one Faith that is of the Gospel which by them is professed But one Baptism that is of JESUS by which they are consecrated But one GOD that is the living and true GOD by whom they were created are governed and shall be preserved and this GOD is their Father too and therefore they must all be nearly related So that here is such a number of Motives to Unity and of strong Obligations binding to it that none more need and few more can be added of the same Nature Were they rightly considered how is it possible that Christians should divide When in so doing or suffering it to be done they must break the Frame or Contexture of their Religion and go against the Temper and Constitution of it and fail most shamefully in their proper Vocation If at any time therefore or upon any occasion we grow too hot and our Minds ferment and our Passions boil so as to threaten any thing of Division let us but take our Bibles in our Hands and deliberately read and seriously ruminate on this Paragraph and surely it will be enough to cool that Heat and quench that Fire which would inflame us to Dissention Let me ask are we willing to unchristian our selves Why if we do not endeavour to keep Unity we take too great a step towards it At least we fall very short of our Calling and whatever Figures we seem to make in a great measure we are no better than Cyphers Christians without Unity and without endeavouring to keep it are somewhat like Scholars without Learning and without studying to get it They want an Essential of their Profession or a most necessary Piece of it nor do they take due care to attain unto it and be accomplish'd in it And as we cannot answer the Nature of our Calling without Unity so neither can we advance it And therefore when our LORD prayed for his Disciples as we noted at first that they all might be one He gives this Reason why He sued for their Unity That the World might believe that Thou hast sent me So that Unity in the Church of GOD is to propagate Faith in the Messiah or Son of GOD and to advance Christianity in the World And is it not highly needful then and does it not behove us to endeavour to keep it amongst our selves and to promote it so far as we can with others Our Blessed LORD taught us to Pray and I hope we do it every day more than once that His Kingdom may come That His Heavenly Religion may grow great and powerful and rule in the Hearts and Lives of Men That it may take deep root in all places and yield much Fruit That it may thrive and flourish more than ever it did ascending to the highest Pitch and spreading to the